Chelsea can form the next Carvalho & JT by signing “immense” £69m machine

After falling to their eighth Premier League defeat of the season away to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Christmas Eve, it looked as if Chelsea’s season was all but over; however, a string of three league wins since has given the Blues some hope that they can salvage something before May comes around.

Mauricio Pochettino still has a lot to work on, and with the January transfer window in full swing, it will almost certainly involve some new faces.

The latest one touted for a move to Stamford Bridge could help to shore up the defence and become the modern-day Ricardo Carvalho alongside another star who has been likened to John Terry.

Chelsea look to Lisbon for their next Carvalho

According to a report from football.london earlier this week, Chelsea are interested in Sporting CP’s incredibly promising young centre-back Ousmane Diomande, and have already ‘held talks’ with the Lisbon side.

The Blues aren’t the only ones interested in the Ivorian though, as the Liverpool Echo revealed earlier this week that Premier League rivals Liverpool are also keen on signing the 20-year-old this year.

Alongside this tough competition, the Pensioners will also have to stump up a considerable amount of cash to get this deal over the line, with football.london reporting that the Sporting star has a release clause worth around £69m inserted into his contract, although there is a reluctance to pay that much.

That said, if Chelsea can get this deal over the line they would have a very talented footballer on their hands, and one that might just be able to follow in the footsteps of Carvalho.

Diomande could become the Carvalho to Colwill’s Terry

With Diomande being just 20 years old, it is hard to say whether he’ll go on and have a career as impressive and illustrious as Carvalho’s, but there are some apparent similarities.

First, if the “immense talent”, as described by U23 scout Antonio Mango, were to sign for Chelsea, he would follow in the legend’s footsteps, going from one of the Portuguese league’s biggest clubs to Chelsea, with Carvalho arriving from Porto in 2004. Second, both men are right-footed, and lastly, he has the opportunity to form a brilliant partnership with a Blues star who has been likened to Terry: Levi Colwill.

The Southampton-born gem has been compared to the former Chelsea captain for some time now, even giving his thoughts on the matter in an interview with The Athletic: “I’m not going to complain. It’s not a bad thing to be called the new John Terry.

“John Terry is a club legend and leader, someone every centre-back at Chelsea should look up to.”

The comparisons became more frequent this year, as upon his return from Brighton & Hove Albion this summer, the Englishman was given Terry’s iconic 26 shirt number, and like clockwork, the comparisons started flooding in.

While the similarities are there, it will take a lot of hard graft and years of success for the pair to rightfully own the comparisons, with it some feat to live up to a duo who were key figures under Jose Mourinho back in the mid-2000s – memorably forming part of a defence that shipped just 15 league goals in 2004/05.

Still, based on Diomande’s underlying numbers from this season, he certainly looks like he could make that happen.

The “elite talent”, as described by talent scout Jacek Kulig, produces a massive 5.42 progressive passes per 90, takes 80.9 touches, makes 5.97 ball recoveries and wins 83.3% of his challenges, indicating his stellar defensive prowess.

At the end of the day, it’ll be challenging to live up to the tag of ‘the next Carvalho and Terry’, but there will be few pairings more likely to do so than these two young starlets.